Our Opinion: What we can learn from the Callahan way

Those looking for a meaningful way to honor Gene Callahan, who died Monday at age 80, needn’t look further than his obituary for instructions.

“In lieu of flowers, please vote on Nov. 4th,” it advises simply.

The notice also invites those who knew and respected the longtime fixture of Illinois politics to a party this afternoon at Norb Andy’s in downtown Springfield because “Gene wanted his family and friends to celebrate his life, not mourn it.”

It’s a fitting final tribute to a man whose passion for government, politics and public service was central to his life’s work for more than 40 years.

Journalism and politics — and baseball — were in Callahan’s blood from the beginning. He started working for newspapers when he was in high school. His father was a state representative and leader in the Democratic Party in Iroquois County.

After college and a stint in the service, Callahan’s first reporting assignment at the Illinois State Register, one of the precursors to today’s State Journal-Register, was the police beat in 1957. He later began covering government and was a political columnist from 1961 to 1967, during which he churned out his Callagrams with political news of the day.

In his final column in December 1967, he wrote that he regretfully but enthusiastically was leaving the paper to work for state government for better pay and “a belief that in some small way I may be of service to the State of Illinois.”

He was an aide to a host of Democratic Illinois leaders, including Gov. Sam Shapiro, Gov. Otto Kerner and Lt. Gov. Paul Simon. Later, he was a trusted adviser to Alan Dixon when Dixon was state treasurer, secretary of state and later a U.S. senator. Dixon died July 6.

In the early 1990s, Callahan became Major League Baseball’s first director of governmental affairs, based in Washington, D.C., where he worked with senators and congressmen. Baseball was another of his lifelong passions.

After he retired, he was a trustee for Southern Illinois University, where his late son, Dan, affectionately known as “Coach Cal,” was the head baseball coach for 16 seasons. Callahan remained active in politics, including offering behind-the-scenes guidance to many. His daughter, Cheri Bustos, is a Congresswoman serving the Quad-Cities area.

As word of Callahan’s death and the end of the so-called “Callahan era” circulated this week, politicians, partisans and the public shared memories and reflected on his contributions to politics and the greater good. They called him a gentleman and a giant, a class act and a mentor, a statesman and a trusted adviser.

Online, people shared stories of interactions they had with Callahan through the years, describing him as loyal, kind, noble, honest, hard-working, helpful, a good friend and a man of the highest ethical standards.

Page 2 of 2 - In short, he was one of the good ones, as Republican Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka observed in a statement about Callahan’s death.

“He was a one-of-a-kind character, respected in the fields of media, politics and sports,” wrote State Journal-Register sports editor Jim Ruppert in a column this week. “He followed a simple credo: don’t talk about everything you know, but know everything you talk about.”

That’s valuable advice, especially in this frustrating era of hardline political partisanship and sniping.

Political observers sometimes lament that statesmanship is dead. They say the personal and political integrity demonstrated by folks like Callahan, Dixon and others is getting harder to find in the halls of Congress or in the tiniest village board rooms. And, they ask, what happened to the nation’s willingness to consider other points of view?

A dig-in-your-heels, win-at-all-costs mindset has drowned out thoughtful debate. And a my-way-or-the-highway stubbornness has crippled the wheels of government on more than one occasion lately.

Being an active, thoughtful participant in government is the only way to change things, as Callahan understood. So by all means, honor him by voting Nov. 4 and in every election.

But politicians and voters further can pay tribute to this highly regarded public servant and others like him by embracing the spirit of compromise; opening their minds and hearts to what others, even political adversaries, have to say; and conducting themselves with an attitude of respect, honor and dignity.